I did not mean to make any connection between the cultures, ethnic of the victims and the perpetrator nor of the critic of the article.

I simply tried to point out that these areas are going through an uprising, which should be considered war zone. If the violent and chaotic uprising is happening in Greece (or say even Denmark – unlikely), you wouldn’t want to send female reporters there either.

]]>By: elenohttp://blogs.reuters.com/david-rohde/2012/06/29/end-the-assault-on-female-and-local-journalists/#comment-1478
Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:54:10 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/david-rohde/?p=1072#comment-1478I see. So Lara Logan reckons it is the ‘bad’ people who supported the Mubarak regime who do these things, not the ‘good’ people who support the Muslim Brotherhood.

For 50 years now journalists have been painting regimes that they liked in a good light and regimes that they didn’t in a bad light. No objectivity. (Recall Reuters was caught Photoshopping photographs in the Israel-Lebanese war to support Hezbollah.)

But having lived and worked in these places for some time I think the reality is more complex. Both sides are often lawless and indeed not fit places for women journalists. Indeed the women of the region are seldom out there protesting. They are expected to remain at home. It is mainly left to the men to do the protesting.

Silly articles like Rohde’s above simply illustrate the huge lack of understanding journalists have of the regions they report on. The ME is not going to change – they will not suddenly become respecters of women – because one or other journo writes an article condemning it.

Female journalists should stay away.

]]>By: apophthegmhttp://blogs.reuters.com/david-rohde/2012/06/29/end-the-assault-on-female-and-local-journalists/#comment-1476
Mon, 02 Jul 2012 14:33:54 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/david-rohde/?p=1072#comment-1476These events are a manifestation of the fact that most nations of the world are largely governed by criminals. But the West and its civilised allies are a rare inspiring and invigorating exception. Criminals are unscrupulous, pernicious individuals whose acts of craven cupidity and immorality, which are carried out in the furtherance of personal power, give them an advantage over righteousness and virtue in those nations that are primitive or possess large ignorant and uneducated populations. This is why the West is often in conflict with base nations, not for the pursuit of oil as our mendacious enemies purport, but because it strives to promote integrity in governance at the highest levels. In contrast, the uncivilised leaders of rogue nations (some powerful like Russia and China and spiteful wannabees like the government of Iran) strive to obfuscate, manipulate and misrepresent the truth for their own personal ignominious benefit to the detriment of their populations whom they despise and seek to diminish in order to better control them and the nation’s resources. A truthful journalist is a threat to the preservation of their iniquitous domain and must be persuaded to remain silent by fair means or foul. Criminals prefer to hide in the shadows because they are vulnerable when exposed to the ‘light’. Most humans are honest and, to criminals who are keenly aware of this simple fact, truth and justice are similar to an encounter by Dracula with the ‘light’. The only exception to this is where policing is absent and criminals manage to dominate the local area. This is why the US cannot sit back and let events take their course.
The BRICS who are ‘the new kids on the block’ are like juvenile delinquents who want to take the world back to the ‘stone-age’ because it’s in the interests of their criminal governments to achieve this reprehensible objective. As a result they forfeit the right to any influence except that which can be bought and as such it is worthless because such influence ablates given that it lacks foundation. The issue of ICAAN provides an opportunity for the virtuous West to hobble the ignominious BRICS and demonstrate the limits of their influence and the extent to which they can be marginalised to the benefit of the civilised populations of the world
]]>By: SGinORhttp://blogs.reuters.com/david-rohde/2012/06/29/end-the-assault-on-female-and-local-journalists/#comment-1466
Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:13:53 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/david-rohde/?p=1072#comment-1466I’m still trying to determine if this is really true or some scam (thanks internet) but holy cr@p. The first three comments (likely from fat, white, greasy males and even more likely from “amerca”) to this scenario pretty much sum up the failed human experiment. Whether you believe in GOD, Evolution, or Magic fingers just bring on the meteor or plague and give something else a turn … jeeez.
]]>By: freedompress25http://blogs.reuters.com/david-rohde/2012/06/29/end-the-assault-on-female-and-local-journalists/#comment-1460
Sun, 01 Jul 2012 22:14:36 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/david-rohde/?p=1072#comment-1460I am appalled by the responses of the previous commenters that these journalists had it coming to them.

While there are certainly good arguments that much of modern journalism is propaganda and true objective journalism is difficult to find, can you explain to me how that gives anyone the right to sexually assault another human being? Or imprison them simply for harboring different beliefs or questioning the efficacy and brutality of a regime in power?

This type of behavior is unacceptable for any group of people, but if it is allowed to be perpetrated on a nation’s fourth estate thereby limiting the flow of useful information (solely on the basis that it threatens whatever group is in power) the society in question will find itself crippled and unable to contribute to human progress. If perpetuated globally, the standard of living for humanity itself will grind to a halt and what progress has been made over the last century as far as civil rights will quickly rescind.

They should have thought twice before sending women to these areas. Men would have been more appropriate.

]]>By: usagadflyhttp://blogs.reuters.com/david-rohde/2012/06/29/end-the-assault-on-female-and-local-journalists/#comment-1444
Sun, 01 Jul 2012 15:24:34 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/david-rohde/?p=1072#comment-1444There is a very, very good reason that journalists world-wide are seen as the agents of hostile power by the bulk of the population. They are. Why should people who have arrogated an “objective” point of view to themselves alone get special protection? Because they would like it? How about they earn it.

When journalists become the target of the power elite in a country, then it is possible to think they are objective. Has there ever been a power elite, at any time, in any place that did not treat those under their power badly? Try going back further than anyone alive’s lifetime and list one. You cannot.

Modern journalism is merely a branch of one Ministry of Propaganda or another. They do not have divine immunity.